For any with interests in shell photography and/or cowries... First, I’ve uploaded the completed article intended for the Research branch of www.cowrys.org, so if anyone accessed the item on Cypraea gaskoini earlier, they may want to recheck it. The copy previously posted did not have its Addendum completed. ( http://www.cowrys.org/research/ ) On digital cameras, lots of very sound advice has been posted and I won’t re-cover those areas. An additional aspect of close-up images which I’ve found useful, and others may too, has to do with shooting close-ups from a distance, i.e., putting close-up lenses on a telephoto lens. This means the overall light to the CCD will be lower but the geometry of the specimen will be less distorted since the camera and lens will not be ‘looming’ over the specimen. Backing away from the shell also makes illuminating it easier. My own choice of a digital camera was driven by a need for flexibility. I settled on a Fuji FinePix 4900Zoom after looking at many other digital cameras from several manufacturers. It isn’t that cheap, although the price continues to fall. It allows the photographer _complete_ control, if desired. With a 6x optical zoom, it isn’t tops in zoom range but suffices where I use it for close-up work, and by being able to ‘stop down’ to f/11, it allows some extra depth-of-field in macro situations. Another macro benefit comes from the various file sizes for images. If you have a sizable SmartMedia card (128mbytes in my case), a large image format can be chosen to “zoom” in on a part of the photo without losing resolution. If its 2400x1800 pixel image at “HI” resolution is used, the file size is 12.7 megabytes--for ONE image! That’s a LOT of electronic zoom power. One additional cost was the wide angle lens converter which comes with a (required) threaded tube. That tube (NOT sold separately!) is needed for the (Tiffen) close-up lenses. It is a good wide angle; it took a great shot of my house, which may--some day--help it sell, but otherwise it doesn’t do much for my shell photography. One of the MAJOR selling points (with me) is the USB hook-up. The file transfers take place quickly and easily. I can rename the files as they reside on the camera’s memory. It has the "white-balance" feature discussed previously as well as corrective settings for several lighting situations, indoor and outdoor. The indoor settings allow photos under incandescent or flourescent sources to have correct color balance. Before this begins to sound like a commercial, I'll just say that many factors are involved in getting good images. Sometimes you think and then shoot, most times you shoot, look, think and shoot again. Good luck! Bob Dayle (a.k.a. makuabob) _________________________________________________________________ MSN Photos is the easiest way to share and print your photos: http://photos.msn.com/support/worldwide.aspx